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(Mortality for non-Western immigrants by age group.The black line is the Danish mortality rate for that group)

New figures from Statistics Denmark show that immigrants live longer than Danes. For every 100 Danes who die aged 25-89, 80 men and 76 women of non-Western origin die.

The Danish inclination for tobacco and alcohol costs so many relatively young lives that immigrants from non-Western countries have overtaken Danes.

The figures don't surprise Janne Schurmann Tolstrup, researcher at the National Institute of Public Health. "when you take two groups of people, where one group smokes and drinks alcohol and the other doesn't, it's clear that there will be higher mortality in the first group. Smoking in particular we know is a big cause of death."

The figures show that smoking is a frequent cause of death among Danes (causing 25% of deaths). Non-Western women keep away from cigarettes and pipes. This is one of the reasons why Danes die earlier than immigrants.

Janne Schurmann Tolstrup point out besdies the fact that smoking means higher mortality, non-smokers from the non-Western countries live a higher-quality life. Smoking is a cause for years of chronic illness.